


Registration

by Darkraider



Category: ParaNorman (2012), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Blithe Hollow, But for the Marvel Universe, I Don't Even Know, Interrogation of a minor, Mutant Registration Act, Other, Phil Coulson Has the Patience of a Saint, The Attack, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-18 06:54:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13094757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkraider/pseuds/Darkraider
Summary: I was watching clips of Paranorman and thought about what would happen if it was set in the Marvel Universe, especially with the Inhumans. Norman's powers would stir up suspension and make it a public event, making it kinda impossible for SHIELD to overlook... Read more in the story!





	1. Chapter 1

"We have reports of a small town by the name of Blithe Hollow being attacked by a witch's curse. 6 zombies were arisen by the curse. Fortunately, the town was saved by a young boy named Norman Babcock." Fury slammed a folder down on the briefing table in front of the Avengers. "He is 11 years old." All the gathered Avengers took a paper from the file and began to read it. 

Tony Stark, AKA Ironman spoke first. "Wait- it says here that he claimed he talked to the undead and managed to convince an entire town to listen and not- holy crap! They wanted to hang and burn him!" 

Now, Steve looked angry. "They wanted to kill an 11 year old kid? Why?" He honestly didn't truly believe that a 'witch's curse' and 'zombies' were real but the fact that an entire town wanted to kill the kid ticked him off. 

Natasha Romanoff (AKA Black Widow), who had been quietly reading the file got right in with the questions. "It says that he can talk and interact with ghosts? Is he an Inhuman or was this given to him?" 

"No one knows. He won't say anything but the townsfolk have said they the have known the boy to talk to spirits ever since he was a baby. Apparently he can see every spirit who can't move on or won't." Fury sighed. "Look, we are going to have to bring this kid in. He needs to be tagged and evaluated." 

"No way!" Bruce, who had been quiet up till now shouted out. "He is a child!" He clenched his fists angrily. 

"He is a child who has supernatural powers and needs to be registered!" The Director sighed. "Look, Doctor Banner. I don't want to do this either but my higher ups have certain rules that even I have to obey. The kid made too much attention. Its out of my hands."

Bruce scoffed. "Nothing is out of your hands!" 

Tony stood up at that. "Okay, time to leave. C'mon Brucy. We're going to the lab." Tony approached the slightly green man and borderline dragged him out of the room. The rest of the team could still hear the argument until the door closed.

"We're moving out in twenty."


	2. Curfew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...okay, I'll admit it- this is mostly a filler chapter. It gets better.

Ever since Aggie, Norman hadn't been treated as bad by the people of his town. Some still jeered at him at him and threw things, but it was less common. He still talked to the dead, and they still talked back, so that was good. People gave him weird looks when he pet an animal that had died years ago or talked to the lady in the tree, but that was to be expected. Also, after the Incident, the town sign was changed so it no longer had the picture of the witch being hanged. 

"Hey Norman!" Norman looked over to see his friend, Neil Downe, who was approaching him. The curly haired boy had a smile on his face and the medium smiled back. "How're you doing?"

"I'm doing pretty good, to be honest. Only two people threw trash at me today!" That was a vast improvement over the fact that people used to throw heavier things than trash on a more frequent schedule. "Although I think the rest of the town is sorta scared of me now... I don't want them to be scared of me!" He would rather them think he was a freak than rather them be afraid of him... Loosing train of thought. "How are you?"

"I'm actually doing pretty good! I convinced my mom to not move us to another town, cause, y'know, and the bullies left me alone." Norman sighed in relief. He knew his friends' mom was hesitant to stay in the small town of Blithe Hollow and honestly he couldn't blame her- after Aggie, a lot of people had left town due to fear that she was not truly gone. And of course because they thought he was even more of a freak now that they knew that ghosts were real and that he see them. "And then I found a dollar which I bought a chocolate bar with. I still have it- wanna split it?" He pulled out the slightly mashed bar but Norman shook his head. 

He didn't want to ditch his friend but he had plans already. He had promised his parents that he would be home by 8 and it was rapidly approaching that time. "I wish I could, but I have to get home. Curfew, you get it." He looked at his watch and his eyes widened. It was 7:50! "I have to go! I'll talk to you tomorrow!" And with that, he was off.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is another filler chapter but not really at the same time. Ah- it is hard to explain. I wrote this for a reason.

Norman had just came home and already knew something was wrong. The normally placid ghosts who milled around were obviously agitated and even the raccoon that hung around was fidgiting. They all seemed to be whispering something and he began to ask them to speak louder when his Grandma rushed forward. 'Your parents are safe but they've come for you! Run! RUN!' He froze for a split second before turning on his heel and running off, thousands of possibilites rushing through his mind. He dumped his backpack in an alleyway to lose weight then ran the other direction until he finally enountered the woods. Ever since Aggie, he had been wary of going into the woods, but it now seemed like they were his only hope of escaping who ever 'they' were.

He ran and ran. His lungs burned but he didn't stop, not until the only thing he could hear were the chirping of birds and they rustle of the leaves. He leaned over and began to dry heave from extertion and stress. Once he was done, he panted heavily and sat down on the rock to observe exactly where he was. He saw the ghost of another raccoon and winced in sympathy- it had been caught in a snare by the looks of it. He sat on the rock for about ten minutes until his chest stopped burning and whatever remained of daylight was gone. The only light was from small critters who milled around in the night.

The medium was terrified. For all he knew, the people at his house were scientists to experiment on him or the military to kill him. He didn't want to leave! He- he wouldn't! He'd fight back! His thin body slumped. How was he going to fight alive, breathing, adults? The zombies were different- they didn't really want to hurt them and they were fragile already. He couldn't win. But he could run. He could run far away so that he would never be found. Norman took a deep breath. He couldn't run. He had to stay with his parents. He had to stay with Neil. 

Norman got up and looked around, starting to realize a fateful truth. 

He was lost.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previous Chapter
> 
> Norman has gotten scared and run off into the woods only to realize he is lost. Will he find his way out or will he be lost in the treacherous woods until he becomes a spirit himself?

Norman began to panic as the shadows got even deeper. Although he could sorta see, his vison using only ghost light wasn't the best. He decided that instead of sitting around waiting for a non-ghost animal to come up on him, he was going to try and retrace his steps. He could kinda see his path of destruction through the woods and decided to stay on the general path. Logically, he knew that he could be completely lost in the woods, but his childlike optimism made it so he wasn't completely bogged down. After what felt like hours of walking- and it could have very well been- he finally saw the lights of his town. His nervousness came back full force and he stopped in his tracks. What if 'they' wanted to kill him? A startling revelation came over him and he gasped. He- he was like Agatha. She had been terrified of the witnesses and had be afraid they would kill her, just like him. He continued to muse on that until a bright light shined on him.

"Over there!" A group of both officers and some people in a weird black uniform surrounded him and he flinched back from the flashlight that was shoved into his face. A man with blond hair came near him and Norman tried to skitter back, a weird feeling going through his body. When he looked down at his hands he saw the same glowing energy that Aggie had when she was scared and cursed the people in the courthouse. His blue eyes widened and he clenched his fists. "We are not going to hurt you. Calm down. We only want to talk." 

The boy shook his head. "How am I supposed to believe you? The ghosts told me to run and run far- away from you!" The sensation was getting harder to control and he could feel it spread to other parts of his body. How did he even have this? He'd never had it before... Maybe the encounter with Agatha unlocked something in him? The bolts... 

"My name is Steve Rogers. I am also known as Captain America. I wouldn't lie to a kid." Something in his eyes made Norman want to trust him. "See? I don't even have a weapon. My colleague and I, we just want to talk to you. Know more about you." Almost as if he could read the medium's mind, he added softly, "I am not going to hurt you. All of this? It wasn't so we could capture you. It was so we could find you and take you back home. I'll make you a deal. Come with me and my colleague and I promise you, I will personally bring you back home." 

The child looked around once before sagging. "I don't really have a choice, do I?" He knew what he had to do. But first he wanted to say goodbye to his family. "I want to see my family before we go." Mr. Rogers gave him a warm look. "Of course." He put a hand on Norman's shoulder and started to lead him through the last thin stretch of the woods. 

"Do you know who Tony Stark is?" At that Norman whirled around. "Who doesn't? He's Ironman." The Captain laughed. "That he is. He is also here and we will be meeting him in the Broken Knife. I promise you kid- we aren't going to hurt you. We just need for you to come with us for a little while." 

"F- fine." He tuned out the large man as he began dismissing the rest of the crowd. Soon all that were left was him and Mr. Rogers. Before he knew it, he was at his house, a place he honestly thought he would never see again. He didn't know that if after he went with the two men if he would ever see it again. They could be lying, after all, despite how much sincerity was in the blue eyes of the Captain.

"I'll wait out here."


	5. Chapter 5

Norman walked in the door only for him to immediately glomped on by his mom. "We were so scared! Never do that again!" She had obviously been crying and still had tear tracks on her face. His dad was standing behind her with a worried look on his face. "Why did you run?"

"Grandma. She- she told me that 'they' we're here for me. I couldn't take the chance that they might have killed me so I ran. I got lost in the woods but I managed to find my way back." He watched as shock bloomed across their faces and winced as he realized he probably shouldn't have mentioned the fact that he was scared for his life. "I met Steve Rogers though! He promised I wouldn't get hurt and that he would personally bring me back here." As he untangled himself from his mother's embraces, he noticed his sister who also had drying tear tracks on her face.

"You're an idiot." She hugged him as she said that and he smiled before it fell from his face. 

"I have to go now. I'll be back soon, I promise. Goodbye." He hugged each of them in turn before pulling away. "I love you all." And with that, he was walking down the house staunchly ignoring his family's protests and his own reservations, standing next to Steve. "You better keep your promise."


	6. Chapter 6

Norman had been picking at his sandwich when something caught his eye. A ghost had flown by him and he tilted his head, watching her. It was a woman in her late 20's wearing a green pants and a tank-top with a bloody hole in the middle of her forehead. He had never seen her before and he knew every human ghost in the town. "Look, I have to go. A new arrival just showed up. I need to see if I can help her move on." Steve gave the child a weird look but sighed. "I get it. You help her." 

Norman smiled in relief. "Thanks." He looked around and saw her again before starting to run after her. She was obviously confused and scared, looking down at her body. "Hey. I'm Norman." She looked down and floated down to his height. 'Where am I? What is going on?' "I know you are scared. And you are in Blithe Hollow." 'Blithe Hollow? But I was in Vermont! I was hiking then everything went black. Then I ended up like this!' Norman could see that both Mr. Rogers and Mr. Stark were watching, but he chose to ignore them. The ghost was more important.

"I- I hate to say this, but you are dead. It- um looks like you were shot." He gestured awkwardly to his forehead and watched as the ghost did the same things, only for her to 'feel' the bullet hole. A broken sob came from the woman and she sank down. "I'm so sorry. I think I might be able to help you, especially since you are newly dead. Why were you hiking?" She looked at him and spoke quietly. 'I- I was going to put flowers on my grandfather's grave. He is buried on the top of Big Jay. I do it once every three years.' He smiled softly. "I promise you, once I am old enough I will place flowers on his grave. You can rest knowing that I will keep my promise." 'You swear?' He nodded vehemently and she smiled. "I swear." She smiled softly in relief and began to glow an ethereal green, her body dispersing into the air. A shockwave of power went out and blew out a nearby streetlight, but the medium didn't even flinch. Once it was over he turned back to the two Avengers. "She's ascended."

Mr. Rogers looked a little unnerved and Norman realized that was the first time anyone had ever actually seen him free a spirit. He also had to account for the fact that the soldier was from the 40's. At that moment the man who had been excitedly staring finally spoke. "That was awesome. But we've got to go now." Norman dipped his head and closed his eyes. He had made a deal.


	7. AUTHORS NOTE

Aww, crap. I'm sorry, readers. I was re-reading this an realized that A03 didn't post the real chapter 6 and skipped straight to mid-7. I'm working on it now...


End file.
